Customer Reviews

Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter (Thorndike Mystery)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This cozy series is one of my absolute favorites. It's everything I love in a cozy: a quaint English village with interesting residents, lots of tea, and a spunky protaganist with a lot of heart. I always wait with anticipation for the newest installment.

American Lori Shepherd, her American husband Bill, and their five year old twin sons are continuing to enjoy their lives in their beautiful English village of Finch. The twins are thriving at school (although Lori is experiencing major separation anxiety), but one day, their teacher informs Lori and Bill that the boys have been telling their classmates that they saw a vampire while riding their horses at Anscombe Manor, the estate owned by Lori and Bill's good friends, Emma and Derek Harris.

Lori enlists the help of their other good friend, Kit Smith, whose family once owned the Manor, and who is employed there as stablemaster and riding instructor. Together, with supernatural help from Aunt Dimity, they set out to discover the identity of this vampire. But, much to their surprise, Lori and her friends discover a lot more than that. Indeed, they discover fascinating family secrets, betrayals, and great love stories that occurred forty years ago. The story is well-written, clever, and the multiple mysteries will keep you guessing right up until the end. As is always the case with this series, the ending is completely satisfying and dare I say, warm and fuzzy.

I love this series because it brings back characters/townspeople who have become like old friends, yet the author keeps it interesting by revealing previously unknown things about them. In this installment, it's Kit Smith about whom we learn more. Also, we get introduced to new, intriguing residents and I hope the author brings them back in the future. Lastly, as fans of this series have come to expect, there is a delicious pastry recipe in the back of the book.

I highly recommend the book to all Aunt Dimity fans. (For what it's worth, I liked it better than the previous one, Aunt Dimity Goes West). For those who aren't familiar with the series, I think you'll enjoy it as a "stand-alone", but you might get more out of it if you read the previous books in order. I say that only because the author, as I mentioned, reveals more truths about the main characters, and the emotional impact will be greater if you're already familiar with them.

While I generally love the series, there have been some books not as fun as the others. This one is a good fluffy adventure. As always, the village is a great place to visit, with good people to chat up. I liked the way she cleared up the past to make the future rosy. This book should be read with a cozy cup of tea, and a couple of cookies.

The titular Aunt Dimity may be technically undead (a sort of resident ghostie) but that's no preparation for an encounter with a vampire.

Well, unsurprisingly there's something of a problem with that in "Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter," the thirteenth volume of the cozy, endearingly offbeat mystery series. The actual mystery is scattered all over the board in bits and pieces, but the romantic troubles, warm comedic moments, and cozy English-countryside atmosphere really make this little mystery a frothy charmer. Now if only I knew why guys actually like Nell...

Lori is having a rough time dealing with her sons' entry into school, and things get even rougher when the boys admit that they saw a VAMPIRE during their riding lessons (specifically, "Rendor the Destroyer of Souls"). Lori becomes obsessed with the possibility of some weirdo hanging around there, and with the blessing of Aunt Dimity, she and a very skeptical Kit go prowling for clues. They find them -- a shred of red silk and a bunch of pointy-toed bootprints. It probably wasn't a vampire, but someone WAS there.

Adding to the mystery is a strange, friendly man who's just returned from Australia, and an old lady who seriously insists that the DuCarals -- a reclusive nouveau riche family -- are really vampiric cousins of Dracula. Yes, that Dracula -- the old bat thinks that Stoker's story was true.

While Lori is seriously spooked by all this, she isn't quite willing to believe that there really IS a vampire -- she's more inclined to think that the DuCarals are hiding a mad heir who THINKS he's a vampire. But it seens the DuCarals do have a number of mysteries connected to them -- to an apparent murder that happened many years ago, and to secret scandals that nobody in the village is willing to reveal.

It's pretty much impossible to resist picking up a book with a title like "Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter," if nothing else to see what the plot is about. I was personally expecting some kind of spoof on the current trends of urban fantasy, and stuff like that. Fortunately this is less urban fantasy than a modern version of an English cozy mystery, complete with eccentric locals, small villages, mildly decayed manor-houses, tea and a lot of cottages.

While Atherton's mystery is not terribly intricate, she does do a good job scattering the clues of a long-dead mystery, and linking them up to minor mysteries of the present. She also slathers it in plenty of humour ("To my way of thinking, there wasn't much difference between doing battle with a vampiric psycho pervert and riding a horse") and drapes it in the rain-washed, muddy, ye-olde flavour of an English country village. Not to mention some spookiness when Lori visits the local Crazy Old Crone and subsequently gets all spooked out by the DuCaral attic.

And there's the a mildly bittersweet subplot, with Lori trying to figure out why Kit is so romantically introverted, even claiming that he'll never marry anyone because he's meant to be alone. The biggest problem: the continuing preoccupation with Nell, the local Nefertiti who is so gorgeous that hot wealthy young men flock to her from all over continental Europe. Problem is, Atherton never shows us her supposedly perfect personality, so it's hard to care that Kit keeps spurning her.

Lori is a neurotically sweet protagonist, with a dogged attitude towards detecting -- and her past traumatic cases serve as nice backstory. Although she's a wee bit excitable to really catch onto the most logical scenarios, she's certainly determined to figure out what's going on. The more logical brain comes from Kit, the "tortured saint" who helps Lori piece together the various clues -- some of which turn out to have a surprising connection to him. That part certainly came as a surprise.

While not what the title would imply, "Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter" gives us plenty of Lori looking for Rendor the Destroyer of Souls, frothy little "cozy" mysteries, and some suitably plot twists. A fun little read.

I, too, enjoyed this book very much. I loved learning more about Kit. The twist at the end was very fun. Aunt Dimity was a much larger presence in this book than in the a couple of the newer ones. I thought the book was too short. I would have liked more interaction with the wacky people in Finch. That's the only reason I'm marking it down. If you've liked the other books in the series, you'll like this one, too.

This delightful new addition to Nancy Atherton's Aunt Dimity mystery series features Lori Shepherd at her best - or maybe her worst. It seems that the beginning of her twin sons' school years has Lori's imagination working overtime! Is that a germ? Did a train car full of chlorine gas explode? Will my son catch fleas from his classmates? Are my neighbors hiding a psychotic pseudo vampire in their attic? Aunt Dimity has her work cut out for her in this cozy mystery as she tries to guide Lori through the first weeks of sending her babes into the big bad world beyond their nursery!

Every time I read one of Nancy Atherton's novels featuring the paranormal journaling of Aunt Dimity and the misadventures of Lori Shepherd and her English friends, I have to wonder what lies beyond the rustle of the next page! Atherton has a brilliant way of turning everyday events into a roaring adventure, and she does it with such warmth and grace that you don't realize you've been holding your breath until you finally release it over the last cup of steaming hot tea! There were a LOT of twists in her latest plots, and I truly found myself slack-jawed by the time I reached the last page!

I've come to adore Lori Shepherd and the English countryside thanks to Nancy! I take great comfort in the fact that Lori's twins are only 5-years-old, and the fact that I have many more adventures to look forward to! I can't wait to see which one of them inherits their mother's other worldly relationship with Aunt Dimity! In short Nancy, write faster! This book was EXCELLENT!!

Do you believe in vampires? Well, Lori's twins think they saw one up on the hill and now she's frantic to find out if it's true! She and her friend Kit investigate the history of some strange neighbors who just might be hiding someone up in their attic. As they get to know more about the past, they meet numerous people that all were involved in a mysterious event that occulted more that forty years ago. When the story of that day finally comes out, no one realizes how close to home someone will be affected.

I really enjoyed this book. The story grabs you from the start and you know another good adventure is ahead for Lori. The author adds every day life events and mixes in some mystery, that makes you want to keep reading to the very end to solve it!

Nancy Atherton has done it again with her thirteenth book in the `Aunt Dimity' series. I never get tired of this series about Lori Shephard and the situations she finds herself in. She always comes back to opening her blue book and waiting for Aunt Dimity to speak (or actually write to her from the other side), so she can talk to her about her adventures and get advice.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that wants a good, easy and enjoyable adventure to read. Also, I would read the rest of the series too!

This is one series that will bring a smile to your face and a good feeling after every book!

Nancy Atherton is a wonderful author. I have read all of books! Sometimes I wish I could be with and help her solve the mysteries. You have to love a lady who loves her bunny and talks to a ghost, her "Aunt Dimity"! I always enjoy reading Ms. Atherton's books! More please!!!!

I just read here that the next installment of Aunt Dimity is called, "Aunt Dimity Slays the dragon". Great news for us fans.

Shivers up my spine yet again. Such a fun book as were all the others. Can't wait for the next one!

As a confirmed Aunt Dimity and Lori Shephard fan, this one leaves me wishing for more. Any confirmed romantic will find this one the perfect blend of mystery and romance. Thanks Nancy Atherton for another winner

Judi H

I very happily discovered Aunt Dimity with the first book out. I have not missed a single one, but found this to be one of the BEST!